Austin's pace slowed as his body grew weary, burning with a numbing fatigue that only paused when he adjusted Lyss' weight, keeping her helpless body sheltered in his blood-freckled arms. It had been raining for hours, and the dark, narrow road carried the burden of the weather with a showing struggle, leaving deep puddles to lie lazily among patches of raised asphalt. Heavy boots sent the calm pools into an eruption of chaos; the falling …showed first 75 words of 7525 total…

…showed last 75 words of 7525 total…hopelessly. "I saw you in that building as he burned it! You're supposed to be dead!" She noticed from this proximity the morbid mutilation caused by the fire, and the blasted circular hole in his skull, crusted with gore. How did he survive? <Tab/>"Funny what things we see, dear angel," he grinned, peeling back the remnants of his lips to flash a bent and yellowed smile. Begin Austin's sequence here.